Being closely connected with the Olympic system, RIOU has been building partnerships with the National Olympic Committees and international federations since its inception. Beginning from 2017, RIOU has worked in cooperation with the International Tennis Federation (ITF) to select candidates for the Olympic Scholarships competition run by the Vladimir Potanin Foundation. The winners of the competition are granted scholarships to study on RIOU's international Master of Sport Administration course. Over the years, RIOU's MSA has been attended by four ITF representatives nominated by the tennis federations of Algeria, Kenya, Lithuania and Turkmenistan.
When Susan Adhiambo (Kenya) joined RIOU, she had five years of work experience in the sports industry, and she was confident that the course would fully meet her objectives of enhancing her professional skills as a sports administrator.
"At Tennis Kenya I managed projects and resources of the tennis federation, so I was looking forward to studying the modules addressing challenges facing this sport in Kenya - revenue generation, sponsorship and governance. Most people in my community suffer from limited number of public facilities. Tennis Kenya lobbied the Government to allocate land to develop a National Tennis Centre, which will provide wide public access to the sport with subsidies from our federation. The social impact of sport is really important. On returning to Kenya, I will continue working at my tennis federation to bring about positive social change. It is for this purpose that I wanted to obtain training of such high standard".
ITF President David Haggerty expressed his gratitude to RIOU Rector Lev Belousov for their effective cooperation in personnel training. He said: "ITF nominees, young sports administrators, have recognised this unique opportunity, greatly benefitted from RIOU’s educational experience, and returned to their National Association with far greater competency and confidence in their actions". To give an example, one of the MSA alumni, Hamza Khelassi from Algeria, was appointed Secretary-General of the Algerian Tennis Federation upon his graduation in 2020.
The partnership agreement between RIOU and ITF also seeks to provide RIOU students with internship opportunities.
Virginija Paliukaite, Secretary-General of the Lithuanian Tennis Federation and an MSA 2019 graduate, had a placement at the ITF headquarters in London. She was involved in the work of the ITF departments of communications, international relations and professional tennis, as well as Juniors Committee and Davis Cup Committee. "That was an excellent experience and an opportunity to meet major players in the world of tennis, getting a behind-the-scenes view of the enormous machinery of the ITF", said Virginija sharing her impressions of the internship.
In the coming September, the ITF headquarters in London will provide a placement to MSA 2021 graduate, Secretary-General of the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation Eziz Dovletov. During his year at RIOU, Eziz proposed to sign a cooperation agreement between RIOU and the Turkmenistan Tennis Federation. The signing took place on the RIOU campus in June, during the graduation ceremony.
Eziz said: "RIOU is amazing! Here I acquired a wealth of new knowledge, had an opportunity to meet professors and students from different countries, and get practical training at sports venues. I am the first student from Turkmenistan to have completed RIOU's one-year programme. I would like people in my country to know about RIOU, so that our sports specialists could enhance their professional skills here and develop sport in our country".
This year's winners of the Olympic Scholarships competition include another ITF nominee, Jermille Danclar of the Tennis Association of Trinidad and Tobago. Having a master's degree in physics from the University of Delaware, USA, Danclar has set up his own tennis club in Trinidad and Tobago, took up a senior position at the national tennis federation, and is joining RIOU now to systematise the accumulated management experience and establish a regional tennis hub in Trinidad.
